Charting a course to development

Two planning conferences in Albany focus on how cities can use their waterfronts for economic gain

By Jimmy Vielkind

Updated
10:06 pm EDT, Thursday, September 26, 2013

Albany

In Buffalo, city officials have created an industrial history path and kayaking pier in the shadow of the grain elevators that made it the Queen City along Lake Erie.

In Syracuse, a boardwalk-like lounge area is being built on the south shore of Onondaga Lake, once tagged as the nation's most polluted lake.

And in distant San Antonio, the famous tourist magnet River Walk is being extended to connect with historic missions that helped establish the Texas city.

What about the Capital Region?

Two planning conferences this week center on ways that sputtering cities can use their waterfronts to jumpstart development. On Monday, Rep. Paul Tonko's annual "Mighty Waters" conference drew a Democratic colleague from San Antonio, Rep. Joaquin Castro, who told how investments in his city's River Walk created a tourist destination. Set one story below street level, the River Walk is a public park lined with restaurants and stores.

"It's clear that you have a lot more to work with than we did," Castro said. "There's a lot of natural beauty here, and it's much more vast than the River Walk was.''

The problem is, and has been, I-787. A bridge connects Broadway to the Jennings Landing area of Corning Preserve, but the highway has split Albany from its riverfront for decades.

Albany Planning Director Doug Melnick said the city is working on a master plan for Corning Preserve in conjunction with the Downtown Tactical Plan that is being funded by Capitalize Albany.

"It's definitely on our radar," he said, noting that the city plans to build a permanent stage at Jennings Landing. The master plan examine potential uses for large fields just south of the Patroon Island Bridge and ways to better use land between the amphitheater and boat launch. Bike or kayak rental shops are possibilities, Melnick said.

During one panel session, landscape architects from Trowbridge Wolf Michaels presented recent park projects in Buffalo and Syracuse. Margot Chiuten described a 3.5-mile stretch along Lake Erie in Buffalo's outer harbor where five "nodes" were created along an existing trail to help people connect to the water and the area's industrial past.

Benches were made from limestone slabs recovered on the site, and bollards were adapted from steel girders. At several points along the trail, interpretive panels were cut into metal fencing.

"Rather than just a sign on a stick, we thought this was a more interesting approach," Chiuten said.

The point is to make a place special, unique and worth visiting. In the case of Buffalo and along Syracuse's Onondaga Creek, planners connected to the history and ecology of the sites.

Chiuten said other cities could copy the same techniques.

"We're at this turning point where all of our riverfront highways are under consideration, and there's more of a move toward pedestrian access," she said.